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License Board
License Board.]] The License Board is the ability system used in Final Fantasy XII, which forms the basis of the job system. It was created by Hiroyuki Ito, the game's director. The system consists of different tiled boards for each job with hundreds of squares, each square representing an ability, spell, equipment piece or augment. By defeating enemies in battle, characters earn License Points, abbreviated as LP. Characters must spend their LP to activate squares on the License Board, granting them access to new abilities and allowing them to equip stronger weapons and armor. The original License Board is identical for all six playable characters, while in the Zodiac versions, it differs for each job. Some licenses also cost different number of LP when compared to the original. Mechanics The License Board is a checkered board, with numerous squares each relating to a license. All squares are initially blank, only stating a generic alignment (weapon, technick, augment, etc). Licenses the player already has appear solid, while squares adjacent to already activated squares appear glowing with a number on them indicating the amount of LP needed to activate them, and display what equipment pieces or abilities are connected to that square. When a player takes a new license, it turns solid and the licenses above, below and to the sides of the new license light up. Only licenses lit up in this fashion may be activated, as opposed to being able to activate any square any time. While most licenses are available to all players, an exception is made for Espers (all versions) and Quickenings (original versions), which appear for all characters until activated, at which point the square vanishes from the boards of the other characters. This means only one character may acquire a summon. Summon licenses have to be unlocked by beating the respective Esper in battle. In the Zodiac versions, each board has four Quickening licenses. When a character learns their third Quickening license, the last one disappears. This can make things tricky, because the Quickening licenses often bridge to some other licenses. The Shikari job's ninja blade licenses are behind Quickenings, so the player can't ever get all of them and needs to prioritize which ones they want. License Points are earned towards activating squares by defeating enemies in battle. With the exception of rarer and stronger enemies, including bosses, most enemies give a single LP. Enemies killed by Poach or Zalera's Kill do not give LP. Unlike Experience Points, all characters gain LP regardless of if they are in the active party or not. Equipping the Golden Amulet doubles the LP earned for that party member. Unlocking all licenses, including three Quickenings, requires 13,330 LP. This does not include the Esper licenses, which together cost 805 LP. Upon completing every character's License Board, including the Espers and Quickenings, the player earns Rasler's icon in the Sky Pirate's Den. In The Zodiac Age, the "Conqueror" trophy is unlocked for acquiring 48,000 total LP. Board The License Board is significantly revamped in the Zodiac versions. When a character joins the party, the player can assign them one of twelve jobs. Unlike the original game where everyone uses the same License Board, each of the twelve jobs in the Zodiac versions has a different board. In the PS2, PS4 and Steam versions, once a character chooses a job, they cannot change it. In the Xbox One and Switch versions, the player can re-roll the LP at any time by talking to Montblanc at the Clan Centurio headquarters. Characters also start with a number of licenses, which remain even after a job has been chosen. In the International Zodiac Job System version (exclusive to Japan), the player can choose one License Board for each player character, which cannot be changed. In the Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, each player character can have two License Boards. Once a character unlocks "Second Board" on the License Board, they can select a second job to complement their abilities, and toggle between a view of one board and the other. Licenses are shared between boards owned by the same character; activating one will activate the corresponding one on the other board as well. This has potential implications for the choice of first and second job, and even the licenses which are purchased before the second board is obtained. For example, all four of Shikari's ninja sword licenses are connected to the board by Quickenings, but a maximum of three Quickenings be bought; if another job is chosen first, the player may opt to purchase no Quickenings until after the Tomb of Raithwall to make sure they won't lock themselves out of a desirable ninja sword. Duplication of licenses can also work in the players' favor: A Black Mage has Magick Lores easily available, near the start; they do not progress the character far towards the edges of their board. However, should the second board be something like the Archer, then those primary, nearby licenses are unlocked on the Archer board farther away from the start; nearer powerful late game licenses. This also works with jobs like the Monk, with its numerous Battle Lore and +HP licenses. Another job can even unlock licenses behind Espers; for example, any of the eight jobs that get +310 HP can unlock Greatswords 2 for White Mage without having to buy Chaos. Espers can bypass Espers: getting Exodus for Red Battlemage can open up Heavy Armor 8, 9 and 10 for itself, but also Heavy Armor 10, 11 and 12 for Archer without needing Shemhazai (and vice versa), since 10 is activated on the Archer's board. Thus first jobs and their licenses can also be chosen for the access they give to abilities on the second board and vice versa. The corresponding weapons or magick or Technicks must also be obtained, however. The difference between the +1 boosts to Strength from Battle Lore and +1 boosts to Magick from Magick Lore is a maximum of +16 each, whereas the biggest difference between the base strength of the characters is six, at level 99. Because the bonuses to damage-dealing stats come only from licenses, rather than the jobs themselves, combinations of similar jobs do not enhance damage. Instead, combining e.g. fast and light jobs with slow and heavy ones, or magick with melee, reduces the risk of redundant duplication of licenses. This way the light jobs gain more sturdiness and the heavy jobs more speed. Being able to choose between melee and magick damage makes characters more versatile. Though there are twelve boards and six characters who can each have two boards, the player doesn't need to divide all boards evenly and use all of them; the same board can be used by more than one character, as often a board has good synergy with various combinations. Job selection criteria can include the value of the licenses nearby the ones assigned to characters when they first enter the party, such as Vaan, Fran and Balthier's Steal. If any one of these characters is given the Black Mage job, for example, they will not need to get the Zalera Esper to gain access to Poach. And characters can get licenses that are extremely rare; out of all the White Mage licenses and all the other jobs that can get them, only the White Mage can get White Magicks 1, yet all of the female characters get it to start. Players may opt to play without assigning their characters jobs, but the characters will not learn new abilities. Multiple characters can share the same job. Any unlit licenses can be viewed without activating their adjacent license. Each job has licenses, usually valuable high level ones, which are separated from the main area of the board by Espers, and since only one character can purchase each Esper license and bridge the gap, only that character can access these "bonus" licenses. This gives an advantage to certain combinations of Espers and jobs, although it is arguably not as important as the combinations of jobs. List of jobs The twelve jobs and their zodiac signs are: *Aries - White Mage - Focused on Rods and White Magick. *Taurus - Uhlan - Focused on Spears. *Gemini - Machinist - Focused on Guns and Measures. *Cancer - Red Battlemage - Focused on Maces, and various Magick types, with exclusive access to Arcane Magick. *Leo - Knight - Focused on Swords and Greatswords. *Virgo - Monk - Focused on Poles and capable of barehanded combat. *Libra - Time Battlemage - Focused on Crossbows and Time Magicks. *Scorpio - Foebreaker - Focused on Axes, Hammers and Hand-bombs. *Sagittarius - Archer - Focused on Bows and Technicks. *Capricorn - Black Mage - Focused on Staves and Black Magick. *Aquarius - Bushi - Focused on Katana. *Pisces - Shikari - Focused on Daggers and Ninja Swords. Licenses :For the licenses in the original PlayStation 2 version, see here. * Node is located behind a Quickening or Summon node Behind the scenes Final Fantasy XII was initially envisioned as having a job system, but the idea was scrapped when the developers thought it too overwhelming to players in lieu of the newly introduced gambit system, and the ideas were condensed into the License Board seen in the final game. The battle director, Hiroyuki Ito, wanted a system that gave the player a lot of freedom to develop their party how they wanted to, but simultaneously keep it from becoming overly complicated. By putting it into a board layout and giving the player a visual cue to see which direction they were developing a character in, he felt he was able to strike a good balance between the freedom. Hiroyuki Ito, who was appointed as the game's director along with Hiroshi Minagawa after Yasumi Matsuno left the project, has commented that the plan was for players to customize their characters freely using the board; however, what players did instead was to just acquire every license, not differentiating the characters as the developers had intended. Seeing this, the developers went back to their original idea of using a job system for the Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job System version. With the system where the player can't change their mind after having chosen a job, Ito wanted to call back to the games of the past where players couldn't redo things even by resetting the game, to recreate this kind of feeling of tension and finality. , Hiroyuki Ito interview (Translation) The idea to use twelve jobs came about because the game is the twelfth main installment to the series, and because there are also twelve zodiac signs, a recurring theme in Ivalice. The game already had fifteen different types of weapons in place, and the jobs were planned around the idea that what kind of weapon would belong to what kind of job. A slightly modified version of the original single License Board board exists in the files for The Zodiac Age PC version. It isn't officially supported and requires hacking the game to get at it. This version of the original board doesn't include any licenses added for the Zodiac versions. Using this board would not be the same as playing the original, however, as the game still has no damage cap or spell queue. Other appearances ''Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy Vaan's EX Mode is called '''Obtained all Licenses!', in which he changes his Brave attack low-level weapons from Final Fantasy XII to the best of their kinds. This EX Mode allows Vaan to put away his current weapon without having to use another one. Gallery FFXII-HD-Licence-Board-Menu.png|License Board menu (PS4). FFXII-HD-Licence-Board.png|License Board (PS4). Mastered-License-Board.jpg|License Board fully mastered. FF12 Full License Board.png|License Board fully mastered, up close for one character. FFXII OSG_License Board.JPG|License Board guide in Final Fantasy XII Signature Series Guide. FFXII Complete Knight.png|A completed license board for the Knight, one of the twelve jobs from the Zodiac versions. Etymology The License Board is part of the Zodiac Job System in the Zodiac versions. External links *Character planner tool *[https://docs.google.com/document/d/13szxXd1Zii7klGYzOusEPd2tB9qq0FqM9zsCBijd7Bk The Zodiac Age class guide] References de:Lizenzbrett Category:Gameplay in Final Fantasy XII Category:Character growth systems Category:Job lists